The article was prompted by the announcement that celebrity photographer, lesbian Annie Leibovitz, photographed Manning for a spread in the upcoming issue of Vogue magazine.

Manning, who was recently released from prison after his sentence was commuted by former President Barack Obama, has undergone medical "transition" treatments and has become both a transgender celebrity and a newly minted women’s fashion icon.

Yet Manning “perpetrated one of the greatest leaks of classified government material in American history,” according to the Times opinion. He “transmitted 750,000 secret military records and State Department cables to WikiLeaks in 2010” while also placing “an untold number of innocent people’s lives in danger.”

Undermining the LGBT cause

By promoting Bradley Manning as an iconic transgender figure, LGBT activists undermine their demands that transexuals should be free to serve in the U.S. military.

“Celebrating Chelsea Manning just a few years after gay and transgender people were permitted to serve openly in the military discredits the L.G.B.T. cause,” explains the Times article, and here’s why: “Throughout most of the 20th century, homosexuality was associated with treason and used as a basis for purging gay people from government jobs, denying them security clearances and restricting their service in the armed forces. The decision by Ms. Manning’s defense team to argue that untreated gender dysphoria was a factor in her decision to leak classified information unwittingly aids those who say that L.G.B.T. people cannot be trusted in sensitive government jobs. And it dishonors the L.G.B.T. people who have served in the military throughout history without betraying their country.”

Crucial timing

The article comes at a crucial time. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis just announced that transgenders will be allowed to continue to serve in the military while the Department of Defense assembles a panel to review new directives regarding transgenderism issued by the White House.

Mattis’ announcement was made in response to President Trump’s memorandum to the armed forces stopping transgenders from entering military service and cutting off tax dollars for troop sex ‘changes.’

The Commander-in-Chief explained that openly transgender soldiers may “hinder military effectiveness and lethality, disrupt unit cohesion, or tax military resources.” He added that “further study is needed.”

The Trump action seeks to reverse Obama White House directives that, under former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, had ordered all branches of the military in 2016 to draft policies to allow for transgender recruits and transgender medical care.

Swift response

Several pro-family, pro-natural law academics took to social media to carry the message of the Times article to its logical conclusion.

Neil Carlson, director of the Center for Social Research at Calvin College, observed that “Manning is her very own sizable basket of deplorability, that's for sure. The author makes a very good point that she's actually undermining the case for equity by trying to excuse espionage as a mental health issue.”

Princeton University’s Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, said, “To regard a man as a woman is to misunderstand biology. To portray a traitor as a hero is to misrepresent morality.”

Supportive voices for the article’s message alse came from some surprising sources.

Michael Lucas, founder and CEO of Lucas Entertainment, New York city’s largest gay adult film company, asked, “Please take a moment to read this great and important article by James Kirchick. Sexual orientation of a traitor should not matter. It is a shame that so many in our community are beyond defending her for that reason.”

Perhaps the most indicting statement against the LGBT movement’s celebration of Manning as an icon came from Charles Francis of The Mattachine Society of Washington D.C., founded by the country’s first gay activist, Frank Kameny. “Jamie Kirchick is right. Trans military needs to oppose Manning, in the current fight ... even though Vogue fawns and swoons, pathetic. Frank Kameny fought for decades the lie about LGBT security threat.”

Kirchick, visiting fellow with the liberal Brookings Institution who authored the NYT piece, concluded, “It would be hard to find a less convincing advocate for transgender military service than someone convicted of violating the Espionage Act.”

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Doug Mainwaring is a journalist for LifeSiteNews, an author, and a marriage, family and children's rights activist. He has testified before the United States Congress and state legislative bodies, originated and co-authored amicus briefs for the United States Supreme Court, and has been a guest on numerous TV and radio programs. Doug and his family live in the Washington, DC suburbs.